Anita Rachman, Jakarta – Budget watchdogs aired their concerns on Sunday over the newly revised Law on Political Parties that has significantly raised the ceiling for companies' donations to political parties.
Critics fear the that lifting the amount that a corporation can contribute to a party by 67 percent to Rp 7.5 billion ($830,000) will tighten ties between commercial enterprises and politicians, making it more likely for parties to lean in the favor of big business. The revised law was passed on Thursday.
Yuna Farhan, secretary general of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), told the Jakarta Globe the scheme would benefit the donors and limit the independence of parties, jeopardizing the public interest.
"It will only tighten the oligarchic mutualism between businessmen and political parties," Yuna said. "Political parties will become dependent, and pay special [attention] to certain [companies'] interests."
The law also regulates other sources of funding, allowing individual to donate a maximum of Rp 1 billion per year. The law requires all contributions to be voluntary and transparent.
Abdul Malik Haramain from the National Awakening Party (PKB) and a member of House Commission II, which deliberated the law, said that the main argument for the raise was to enhance parties' grass-roots capabilities. He specifically cited the need for education of the people before implementing the change.
However, Yuna said the revised law does not provide measures to ensure transparency and proper auditing of the donations. There is no way to make sure, he said, that businessmen did not use several of their own companies to donate more than what was allowed.
"There is no regulation for that, so several branches of certain companies could donate at the same time," he said. "And according to our study of BPK [the Supreme Audit Agency] reports, donations received by political parties are prone to misappropriation."
Speaking separately, Roy Salam, a researcher from the Indonesian Budget Center, expressed similar concerns.
"We already have a situation where the government tends to go soft on companies," he said. "Companies are given access to natural resources and state budgets. They also benefit from a poor law-enforcement system that offers protection for corrupt businessmen."
Allowing an increase in donations is dangerous and raises the possibility that political parties in the future will no longer work for the people, but for companies, Roy added.
"This particular article [about the limit for donations] is pretty surprising, because so far the public did not know anything about it," he said, adding that the origin of the money donated by companies would never be questioned by political parties and could easily come from illegal sources.
Roy said the General Elections Commission (KPU) and Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) should watch parties closely and press parties that contest elections to fully disclose their sources of funding.
Chairuman Harahap, chairman of Commission II, in responding to critics said the important thing was there was still a clearly defined limit to donations, adding that the law would encourage parties to work with independent auditors to disclose their financial statements to the public. "We haven't even started – why [are people] so suspicious?" he said.
The Golkar Party lawmaker further said it is impossible to involve the BPK because that agency only audits government budgets.
Nurul Arifin, another Commission II member, also from Golkar, said parties would not risk their credibility by accepting money from obscure sources. "Let the public and the media become the watchdogs," she added.